Food giant Pepsico has drawn up plans to fly foreign staff back home and tackle the threat of food contamination in the event of an Iraq war.

Pepsico president Indra Nooyi told world leaders at the Davos meeting in Switzerland: "We have made contingency plans to take out our ex-pats.

Indra Nooyi: Comfort factor

"We have contingency plans on product safety. We have lots of contingency plans."

She acknowledged that US-based Pepsico, which employs 140,000 people in 130 countries, had been a target for anti-US protests in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where the goods were, temporarily, boycotted.

"They realised that the products were made by Saudi people, and by boycotting us they were hurting themselves," Ms Nooyi told BBC News Online.

Comfort factor

The comments came as 2,300 business, and political leaders and gathered at the World Economic Forum's annual summit.

They have come under continued pressure to explain their attitudes to any US-led war against Iraq, and predict the fallout from it.

Carly Fiorina: Emergency response inquiry

Ms Nooyi added that many products in the Pepsico portfolio, which spans Gatorade to Quaker Oats, might rise after the onset of conflict.

"Chips and soda are comfort foods," she told BBC News Online.

"When people sit in front of the TV watching bad news, there is nothing like comfort food for at least giving some relief."

Sales of some Pepsi products reached record highs after the September 11 terror attacks on the US.

Forward planning

Hewlett-Packard chairman Carly Fiorina said the technology giant had revised its emergency plans after an internal inquiry into its reaction following September 11.

"We concluded we were not adequately prepared," Ms Fiorina said.

"We thought we had quite a robust risk management programme."

The firm now had procedures for locating all its employees worldwide.

Orit Gadiesh, chairman at consultancy Bain & Co, said proper planning could make a huge different to corporate performance after a disaster.

"After September 11, Dell rented planes to get parts out of Asia," Ms Gadiesh said.